NEW YORK (Reuters) – Twenty-three New York City doctors and medical workers have been charged with running an insurance fraud scheme in which they persuaded homeless and poor people to get unnecessary medical testing with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that he would lift a hold on U.S. military aid to Cairo, but also said the United States would stop allowing...

At some point, probably 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, humans began talking to one another in a uniquely complex form. It is easy to imagine this epochal change as cavemen grunting, or hunter-gatherers mumbling and...

WHEELER, Ind. – Police say 12 students were among 15 people hurt when a school bus and ambulance collided in northwestern Indiana. Porter County police Sgt. Larry LaFlower says the students suffered only minor injuries...

Lubitz started training with Lufthansa in 2008 before landing a job with Germanwings The Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing his plane into the Alps had disclosed an earlier bout of depression, Lufthansa has said....

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Kyle Larson has been released from a hospital after completing tests to determine why he fainted at Martinsville Speedway. Chip Ganassi Racing says in a statement the NASCAR driver was released from...

Trevor Noah steps into Jon Stewart’s shoes. Comedy Central Fans of “The Daily Show,” the humorous news program run by longtime host Jon Stewart, found out who would step into their departing hero’s shoes this...

WHEELER, Ind. – Police say 12 students were among 15 people hurt when a school bus and ambulance collided in northwestern Indiana. Porter County police Sgt. Larry LaFlower says the students suffered only minor injuries in the crash Tuesday morning at an intersection along Indiana 130 near the town of Wheeler, about 10 miles southeast of Gary. He tells The Munster Times that six students went to hospitals and six others were treated at the scene. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT LaFlower says two ambulance employees and a patient also were hospitalized. LaFlower says the ambulance driver failed to yield the right of way to the bus. Witnesses told police the ambulance’s emergency lights and siren weren’t operating at the time. LaFlower says the ambulance driver, a 23-year-old Griffith man, was driving with a suspended license.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that he would lift a hold on U.S. military aid to Cairo, but also said the United States would stop allowing Egypt to buy equipment on credit starting in fiscal year 2018. Obama has been reviewing military aid to Egypt since 2013 when the Egyptian army ousted former president Mohamed Mursi. The decision will allow for the delivery of 12 F-16 aircraft, 20 Harpoon missiles, and up to 125 M1A1 Abrams tank kits that had been frozen, the White House said. Obama said he would continue to ask the U.S. Congress for $1.3 billion in military aid for Egypt per year, but has decided to “modernize” the aid by discontinuing the use of cash flow financing for military equipment starting in fiscal 2018, the White House said. The United States also will target its aid toward equipment used for counterterrorism, border …

Richard Branson got a jump on April Fool’s day with a characteristically over-the-top prank. The Virgin Group CEO said Tuesday that the British company’s U.S. operations would move to the heartland city of Branson, Missouri. Among his many claims: He said Virgin America will start flying to Branson, and that the company plans to build a new luxury resort in the city of 10,000 people. Branson also said that Virgin Active, the company’s health club chain, will offer a new workout program using hay bales and wagon wheels. He went on to say that his water filtration business, Virgin Pure, will triple-filter the town’s water. That way, he said, “I will always be able to enjoy the perfect tasting cup of tea whenever I’m in town.” Branson even name dropped the town’s biggest celebrity, Dolly Parton, claiming that Virgin will name its latest plane after the country music icon’s 1973 classic “Jolene.” Related: Branson says …

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Kyle Larson has been released from a hospital after completing tests to determine why he fainted at Martinsville Speedway. Chip Ganassi Racing says in a statement the NASCAR driver was released from the hospital on Monday night, and completed medical tests on Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The team says Larson “is currently waiting for final doctor recommendations in order to clear him to return to all NASCAR related activities.” Larson fainted Saturday during an autograph appearance at Martinsville. He was transferred to a Charlotte hospital that evening for more tests. The team has not revealed if a cause has been determined for the fainting. The 22-year-old Larson was NASCAR’s top rookie last season. He missed Sunday’s race at Martinsville while undergoing tests.

Lubitz started training with Lufthansa in 2008 before landing a job with Germanwings The Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing his plane into the Alps had disclosed an earlier bout of depression, Lufthansa has said. The airline, which owns Germanwings, said last week that Andreas Lubitz had taken a break from flight school training, but refused to say why. It has now shared emails from 2009 which show Lubitz told instructors he had suffered from “severe depression”. Meanwhile, all human remains from the crash have reportedly been recovered. French authorities told AFP news agency that the remains of all the victims had been removed from the remote ravine where the plane went down, but mountain troops would return to the scene on Wednesday to search for personal belongings. The search for the second flight recorder will also continue. Also on Tuesday, German newspaper Bild and French news magazine Paris Match said they had obtained a …

Trevor Noah steps into Jon Stewart’s shoes. Comedy Central Fans of “The Daily Show,” the humorous news program run by longtime host Jon Stewart, found out who would step into their departing hero’s shoes this weekend. South African comedian Trevor Noah, who has logged a few appearances on the show, is taking over the reins on Comedy Central. The gig is high-profile, and with that comes a considerable amount of scrutiny. Noah’s Twitter history has now been raked through, with some people calling into question the taste of certain jokes posted on the social-media site, particularly ones referencing Jewish people and women. Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn’t look b4 crossing but I still would hav felt so bad in my german car! — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) September 18, 2009 “Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk think that I’m sexy!” – fat chicks everywhere. — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) …

At some point, probably 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, humans began talking to one another in a uniquely complex form. It is easy to imagine this epochal change as cavemen grunting, or hunter-gatherers mumbling and pointing. But in a new paper, an MIT linguist contends that human language likely developed quite rapidly into a sophisticated system: Instead of mumbles and grunts, people deployed syntax and structures resembling the ones we use today. “The hierarchical complexity found in present-day language is likely to have been present in human language since its emergence,” says Shigeru Miyagawa, Professor of Linguistics and the Kochi Prefecture-John Manjiro Professor in Japanese Language and Culture at MIT, and a co-author of the new paper on the subject. To be clear, this is not a universally accepted claim: Many scholars believe that humans first started using a kind of “proto-language” — a rudimentary, primitive kind of communication with only a gradual development of …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Twenty-three New York City doctors and medical workers have been charged with running an insurance fraud scheme in which they persuaded homeless and poor people to get unnecessary medical testing with promises of free shoes, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Nine doctors and other employees of eight city medical clinics are accused of fraudulently billing Medicaid $7 million in expenses for patients recruited from homeless shelters and welfare centers between October 2012 and September 2014, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly exploited the most vulnerable members of our society and raked in millions of dollars by doing so,” Thompson said in the statement. The people targeted, referred to by the accused schemers as “guinea pigs,” were given free footwear if they produced a Medicaid card and agreed to have their feet examined at one of the involved medical clinics, prosecutors said. They were often taken to …

Posted on Tue Mar 31st, 2015 11:30am PDT By X17 Staff They’re the new “It” girls! Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne, Gigi and Bella Hadid, and Hailey Baldwin were just a few of the handful of models and celebrities that went on a Karl Lagerfeld-hosted Chanel boat party down the Hudson River last night in NYC, and it looks like the bash was a complete blast! We wonder how Kenny felt about her momager Kris Jenner being in attendance, though! It’s got to be slightly annoying to have your mother tag along everywhere you go when you’re trying to make a name for yourself, but the Kardashian matriarch seems to fit in with the cool crowd. The 59-year-old even took the opportunity to pose for pics with Katy Perry, who she previously spent time with at Paris Fashion Week. “Yep @katyperry …Lady Liberty is 100% photo bombing us!Best night in NYC! Thanks for an amazing night and …

French Red Cross members pay tribute March 28, 2015, to the victims of a Germanwings plane crash in front of a stone slab erected as a monument in Le Vernet, France. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) There has been a lot of second-guessing about Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot who deliberately crashed his plane into the French Alps, killing himself and 149 others. If only Lufthansa had regular mental evaluations of pilots, if only people at the airline knew what obvious signs to look for, this tragedy could have been avoided. But psychiatrists know that isn’t true. It isn’t just fellow workers who fail to pick up the supposed subtle hints that indicate that someone might be a danger to themselves or others. “We have no indication what could have led the co-pilot to commit this terrible act,” said Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa’s chief executive. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Psychiatrists themselves have a very poor record. Identifying mental illness is …

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch Royal Family owns a painting by a Dutch master that was looted during by the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands in World War Two, according to a report published on Tuesday. “One painting was found where there were indications of involuntary loss of possession during the German occupation,” the government said in a statement after an inquiry commissioned by the Royal Family that examined tens of thousands of paintings in the Royal Collection. Officials had contacted the heirs of the original owner, who was not named, to arrange the return of “The Hague Forest with a View of Huis ten Bosch Palace”, by the 17th century painter Joris van der Haagen. The work was bought for the Royal Collection by Queen Juliana, grandmother of reigning King Willem-Alexander. The inquiry found that another painting in the collection, “Landscape with St. Hubert”, whose provenance had been regarded as doubtful, was …